Page 82 of Hawk

“Mr. Hawkins, Maria told us you would be in today. The dogs are through there. The ones that are ready for adoption have green cards on their kennels that should have any information we have on them written on it. The ones that are on hold for their new families to clear the adoption process will have yellow tags, and any that aren’t ready for adoption just yet will have red tags.”

“Sounds good, Sylvia.” Hawk smiled at her and then looked down at me. I was so excited that I was practically bouncing on the balls of my feet. “I think we better go take a look.”

It was pretty obvious I was the one who wanted the dog, so she smiled at me when she said, “If you want to hold any of the dogs or take them out back for a walk, just let me know.”

We spent the next half hour wandering around the shelter. I’d known I wanted a dog, but what I hadn’t anticipated was how hard it would be to settle on one. At least that was the case until I came to the last kennel on the right side of the room. There was an entire litter of pups in there, and they were all adorable. I knelt down at the fence and reached my fingers through.

“Look at y’all. Aren’t you just the cutest things.”

They were a mix of colors—one brown with white patches, one gray with white just on the tip of his tail, one that was almost entirely white, and one was a mix of all three colors.

“Are they old enough to be adopted?” I looked up at Hawk, and he stepped over to the green card that was on the outside of the kennel.

“It says they’re weaned and ready for adoption. Looks like there were six, but two of them have found homes. At least, I assume that’s what it means since their names are lined out.”

“Does it say how big they’ll get?”

“It doesn’t, but it does say that their mother is a bully mix that was dropped off here before she gave birth with no information from the previous owner about who the father was.”

I looked around. “Where is she?”

“I don’t know. Maybe she’s already been adopted. Do you want me to ask?”

I looked back down at the puppies. “Not really, but I do want to hold these little guys.”

“Any particular one?”

“No, I love them all.”

“Okay, let me go get Sylvia.”

I sat on the floor watching the pups wrestling around on the floor and playing. It would be hard to choose one, but I took comfort in the fact that as cute as they were, I was sure they would all find homes easily.

A few minutes later, Hawk came back with Sylvia. She was dangling a key in her hand and had a big smile on her face. “Hawk said you wanted to hold the puppies.”

“I do. They’re so cute. Do you have any idea how big they’ll get? It says the mom is a bully mix, and I know they can be all different sizes.”

“We can’t say for sure because we don’t know who the dad was, but she isn’t very big at all. One of our volunteers is walking her right now, but they’ll be back in shortly. Everyone here loves Milly, which is a good sign the pups will have a good temperament.”

I’d told Hawk no when he asked if I wanted him to ask about her because I had puppies on the brain, but it probably wouldn’t be a bad idea to see what she looked like just to get an idea of what kind of dog the puppies would be.

“I thought maybe she’d already been adopted since she wasn’t with the pups.”

“No, she’s still here. Sadly, adult bullies are hard to find homes for.”

“That’s a shame.”

“It is, but these little guys here are super sweet. Let’s open up the kennel, and we can take them out in the fenced area so you can play with them.”

She unlocked the kennel, and then, between the three of us, we carried all four squirmy pups out the back door. I sat down on the grass and watched as they ran around. They played and tumbled over each other, but they all took turns coming over where I sat and crawling all over me. They were adorable. I especially liked the little one that was a blend of brown, gray, and white. I was pretty sure that coloring was called brindle, but I wasn’t positive.

A few minutes later, a middle-aged man walked by with a short, stocky dog that was exactly the same color as the brindle puppy. I pushed to my feet and headed towards them.

“Excuse me. Is that Milly?” I asked.

He gave her leash a gentle tug to let her know he wanted to stop and then looked over at me.

“It is. Are you thinking about taking one of her pups? They’re sweet, just like their momma.”

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